The appeal of SaaS is amplified with the current economic climate, but industry watchers argue management software is an ideal candidate for hands-off implementation. That's why CA -- along with competitors HP, IBM and BMC -- has ramped up its efforts in this market. According to Forrester Research, SaaS makes up a little more than 1% of the $18 billion IT management software market in 2008. But by 2013, the research firm estimates SaaS will represent 10% of the same market.

"Incumbent software vendors are setting up new business units and adding SaaS offerings to existing portfolios," Forrester's "How big is SaaS in IT management Software?" reads.

The management heavyweights are on-board with the delivery model to ease deployment and maintenance of their suites, but still analysts say they will be challenged to compete with pure-play SaaS offerings.

"It will take more time and commitment from these vendors to replace their existing product architectures with a more typical SaaS-facing solution -- one that is truly multitenant, billable based on usage and with a Web 2.0-style user interface," the report reads.